Medicaid not as lucrative for hospitals since ObamaCare which shifted millions of poor to private insurance. Recent hospital closures in West Virginia and Ohio blamed in part on “slow Medicaid reimbursements” -Naomi Spencer, wsws.org

Employees were informed after the fact, given only minimal information. According to the Wheeling Intelligencer, OVMC and EORH employees were called to a 5:30 p.m. meeting on August 7, from which the public and media were excluded.

“Within 10 minutes,” the paper reported, employees “exited both rooms with long faces” and notices of the closures. “Some sobbed while others were seen embracing,” while others expressed anger and outrage. Workers told the paper that they had not been permitted to ask any questions in the meeting.

On August 9, employees attended three forums at OVMC’s amphitheater that were likewise closed to the public and the media, but that “outside the amphitheater, some employees could be heard blaming Alecto Healthcare Services … for the current situation.” Employees “questioned the fate of a defined pension plan.”

“This is our family,” a 10-year employee told the Intelligencer. “We know each other’s kids, the goings-on, the good, the bad. …They threw us out like dirty diapers.” [Employers aren’t “family.” Definition of family: When you have to go there, they have to take you in.]

The economy of the Upper Ohio Valley and Northern Panhandle region of West Virginia is tied to the steel industry, and by extension the Appalachian coal industry. Wheeling, the end point of the old National Road built in the early 19th century, was long a manufacturing hub due to the nexus of railroads and river transport passing through the city.

The termination of critical healthcare services will have a deeply damaging impact on the communities and potentially deadly consequences for individuals who rely on them.

According to West Virginia state Senator Bill Ihlenfeld, who represents Ohio County (Wheeling), other hospitals in the area will have to absorb “30,000 additional visits to the ER.” In a statement to WV MetroNews, Ihlenfeld added, “The waits at some ERs around the area are already very lengthy.”

With the closure of EORH, Ohio residents will have to travel half an hour north to Steubenville for hospital services.

Wheeling Hospital and Reynolds Memorial Hospital, both run by Morgantown-based West Virginia University, do not have the capacity to absorb patients from the centrally located OVMC. WVU Medicine CEO Albert Wright told MetroNews that Reynolds has already seen ER visits skyrocket to record numbers in the past week.

Blaming out-of-state interests for the closure, Justice issued a statement in the language of the capitalist billionaire that he is. “We are having some short-term pain in Wheeling right now,” he declared. “Long-term we will right-size healthcare in that market and improve things. I feel confident about that.”

The closure is entirely the result of the capitalist market, which treats healthcare provision as a for-profit business rather than a social right. Since 2010, more than 100 hospitals have been closed across the United States. Many other facilities, in both rural and non-rural areas, have been bought, merged or had cuts to services deemed not lucrative enough.